What does a pedophile look like? #FdAdFriday

I'm trying to imagine the creative session at Herezie in Paris:

Copywriter: ..."and then it's really a pedophile holding his 'thumbs-up' in front of his face"

Art Director: "How do we know he's a pedophile?"

Copywriter: "I don't know... he's a creepy, middle-aged white guy. With a slightly open bathrobe."

Art Director: "Ewww... but is it campaignable?"

Copywriter: "Sure! We'll show that creeps can come from all ages. We'll have a young guy with a beard, a muscle shirt, and... a TEDDY BEAR!"

Art Director: "I guess we could put the same teddy bear in every ad, as a symbol of lost—


"Copywriter: "Yeah, yeah. Whatevs. But we need three."


Art Director: "Why?"


Copywriter: "We just do."

Art Director: "How about a fat, hairy shirtless guy? And he's bald?"


Copywriter: "Does he have a teddy bear?"


Art Director: "No, too many fuzzy things in one ad. He has a tin cup."


Copywriter: "Why a tin cup?"


Art Director: "I don't know. Can we wrap this up? It's almost wine-thirty."


Yes, it's a serious topic. But besides scaremongering, this campaign implies that sexual predators have a "look". They don't. Why is why so many "nice people" get away with it for so long.


Via Ads of The World 

Louisville's bizarre breastfeeding ad is not helping the cause #FdAdFriday

Great. Many Americans are already weirded out by breastfeeding because they see breasts as single-function male titillators. But with this completely effed take on the unfortunate and played out "animated talking baby" format, they're just creeping people out even more.



Worst of all is the sped-up baby voice. It reminds me of "that high squeaky voice" of evil Toon in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Not a good association.

The campaign means well, at least. In the United States, women of African ancestry have some of the lowest breastfeeding rates. It's an issue that needs addressing. But is the the best the mayor's Healthy Hometown initiative could come up with?

If you read this blog, you know how I feel about the issue. Breastfeeding is a marvellous and deeply human thing. This ad... is not.

Via Adfreak

If your carpet smells like this, spray ain't gonna fix it #FdAdFriday

I wonder what the hell the folks at Grey, Dubai, were thinking when they presented this one.

Instead of product benefit, they exaggerate a product "need" that itself is manufactured. Room "fresheners" are already useless, annoying and potentially unhealthy products. If your carpet smells like a barnyard or raw sewage, however, no amount of scent will cover that pong. It's time to get a new rug.

Via Ads of The World

Russian bank's weird bimbophobic ad #FdAdFriday

"Bimbophobia" is something I just made up. It's the fear and loathing many people feel for the Hiltons, Kardashians and Stoddens of the world.

It is essentially sexist in its nature, seeing rich and vain women as monumentally stupid (which a few may well be) but it also smells a bit like class conflict.

That said, the ad is mildly funny and surprisingly restrained by Russian ad standards.



Via Adrants

Radio station insults men by calling them women #FdAdFriday

I wonder if this kind of shit will ever end.

This "joke" was posted on the Facebook wall of Chez 106, an Ottawa radio station that plays classic rock.

You see, Ottawa has a hockey rivalry with Toronto, which leads to this kind of trash talk. Which can be fun, as long as you don't go trashing half the human species while you're at it.

Calling men "women" as an insult is probably as old as the hills. Kids still use it in the playground, I'm sure. But that doesn't make it OK. And the menstrual reference, often perceived as a women's "weakness" by assholes, is also a dick move.

Okay, my rant is done. I'll let Iggy Pop have the last word:

Via Slutwalk Toronto

DDB's new autoTRADER ad is awesomesauce

Okay, here's a pretty good one.

autoTRADER Canada's new ad takes a really great insight — that anyone can suddenly find they no longer love their car — and turns it into some good storytelling about some self-defined badass guys, a nuclear family, and wannabe badasses in the suburbs.

The stereotypes are played straight, without too much comedic embellishment. Nobody (except the dudes at the end) is treated with disrespect. Even the car is seen as being right for somebody.



Awesome work, DDB Canada!

Via Illegal Advertising.

Yeah, it's a spunky campaign. But who does it serve?

I started this blog to explore best practices in social marketing, as well as to critique what I saw as lazy, obnoxious, unethical and "masturbatory" creative in mainstream advertising.

I am trying really, really hard to find great campaigns to feature. But every time I do the rounds of my usual sources for fresh ad news, I'm confronted by crap like this:

The Ads of The World post says "yogurt"; but the filename says "mayo"...

This is the kind of ad that some creative people, especially Art Directors, think is awesome. It has a great illustration style and it tells a dirty joke about how mayonnaise/yogurt kind of looks like semen. (Even if it doesn't, really.)

But will it really sell car cleaning services? It will get attention for the brand, sure. But it says nothing unique about the actual service except to say that they let an ad agency have fun with their business.

There's a good reason why these ads are usually done as "loss leaders" at creative agencies. (That is to say that the agency usually spends more time and money on the ad than the client puts up.)

You see, this is not an ad for Restaura Car Cleaning. It is really an ad for a Brazilian agency called Hermandad, as well as for the creative team of Paulo Lima, Pedro Teixeira, Hélio Maffia and Douglas Reis, which borrows the obscure brand as an excuse to make the dirty joke. And get covered by ad industry blogs around the world. And probably win an award from other creatives who wish they had clients who would let them do such a spunky ad.

Which is all well and good, for the agency and creatives. But it is not good for the ad industry.

You see, my friends, we have created the ultimate circle-jerk here — making ads simply to impress other ad people. Not to help our clients achieve their business objectives. Not to help make people's lives better. Not even to make money. Just to get awards, recognition and envy from our own colleagues. And I think that's kind of lame.

Oh, and there's another ad in this "bodily fluid" series:

Ha ha ha. Now, can we get back to work?